CMS Updates Requirements for Hospitals to Disclose Prices
CMS recently released updates to the regulations that obligate hospitals to publicly disclose their charges, including negotiated rates with commercial insurance plans.
CMS first started requiring hospitals to post these charges in 2021 and has subsequently made several changes, including increasing the penalties because of lack of compliance by so many hospitals.
In these latest changes, CMS is seeking to strengthen enforcement of the requirements, standardize the data so it is more easily digestible by public stakeholders, and increase access to the information by requiring all hospitals to include a link in the foot of the hospital’s public website labeled “Price Transparency” linking directly to the publicly available webpage that hosts the required information to be publicly disclosed. More information on the recent changes is available on the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Fact Sheet.